Sean Kelly

Founder & Investor. Building companies at the intersection of health, media & founder performance.

Hey there, I’m Sean. I play at the intersection of investing, media and human performance.

I’m a three-time INC 500 founder & entrepreneur with businesses in eCommerce, SaaS, media and B2B services that have collectively generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.

Right now, I serve as a General Partner at The Family Fund and am the CEO of Significant Publications, a B2B digital media holding company.

I'm particularly passionate about our brand FounderIV in support of today's founder-athletes. We help today's top entrepreneurs achieve breakout performance in their personal and professional lives.

I co-founded and led multiple other companies, including SnackNation, a health-centric foodservice and brand discovery platform that served 20,000 businesses across the US. 

Under my leadership, SnackNation was honored as one of the country’s Best Workplaces by Inc. Magazine, recognized for Top Company Culture by Entrepreneur Magazine, and certified as a Great Workplace by Great Place to Work®.

Forbes listed me as one of the top 30 leaders under 30 and one of America’s most promising CEOs under 35. Comparably also ranked me among the country’s top 50 small-to-medium sized business CEOs multiple years in a row. 

Outside of the business world, I’m a two-time national medalist in freestyle snowboarding, hold an advisory role at the growth capital firm, Meaningful Partners, have a degree in Biomedical Engineering from Columbia University and am an avid sports fan of all Michigan sports teams (especially the Wolverines).

I currently live in Venice, CA with my wife and college sweetheart, Shannon, and our goldendoodle, Jameson.

Chairman

We built the first Founderland in 10 weeks.

And almost died.

This past year we gave ourselves 6 months and built an external team to do it and it still wasn’t enough time.

So for next year’s event we decided to make the build a year-round affair…

And are focused on making Founderland a brand that lives throughout the year, not just as once-every-October event.

It’s funny to see how random ideas become full-time jobs lol

Took a quick trip to NYC this week to discuss Founderland ‘26 with one of our top partners J.P. Morgan  

The verdict?

It’s going to be big. 

Perhaps not as big as JPM’s new $3B global HQ at 270 Park Ave (most spectacular office I’ve been in w/ a Warhol or Jasper Johns around every corner)…

But still pretty big and lots of fun with a yuge amount of deals commenced (misspelling intentional)

Thanks for the tour Michael Conte you’re a legend and friend.

And glad to see you’re carrying Ancient Crunch Inc. MASA chips in all of your shops!

No alternative text description for this image

Current health travel stack:

Zoomed off to NYC, Philly and Austin this week.

Back to back meetings all day, late dinners and sports games at night, and planes trains and automobiles like we all know.

Seems like 1/2 of the people I’ve met have a cold.

Here’s what I take on the road to feel good while away…

and do my best to arrive home feeling not-dead to the fam. Works most of the time ;)

 - Sinus rinse bottle filled with filtered water, betadine and salt/baking soda (use after every flight, likely illness prevention tactic #1)

- Zinc acetate lozenges if I’m feeling worn down or fatigued

- KetoneIQ every morning when I wake up to get that cognitive boost

- Momentous whey protein, plant protein, and creatine (10g) + Supergut fiber blended 1-2x per day to supplement diet

- Momentous Sleep pack + medical mouth tape + sleep mask every night

- Metal shaker bottle that doesn’t get gross

- Some type of hydration packets 2x/day minimum (right now using Dry Water)

- WIP 100mg energy pouches for a little boost early in the day usually before workout

- Another ~20 or so supplements in my vitamin case that I pre-fill for each day prior to the week

Sure, sleep/nutrition/exercise are essential and the most  important…but it’s near impossible to not sacrifice them a bit while playing the part of road warrior…so at least for me, travel supplementation is key.

Momentous Ketone-IQ DryWater Supergut

Matt Matros

Founder

National Cleaning Collective (NCC)

NCC is micro private equity providing capital and support to owner/operators in the commercial cleaning & janitorial industry.

Portfolio includes:
- Cleaning Pros of America (Bradenton, FL)
- American Flooring Solutions (Sarasota, FL)
- WeClean WestCoast (Sarasota, FL)

Founder and General Partner

BrandRock

BrandRock helps consumer brand founders and executives sleep better at night by making sure their business has the insurance coverage that they think they have. We read the fine print.

Co-Founder

McKinsey & Company

External advisor to client service teams and clients in consumer-based businesses with an emphasis on innovation.

Senior Advisor

Qurate Retail Group

'Acqui-hired' by CEO to build new digital businesses for global leader in vCommerce. And according to my final review, I "achieved what many thought was impossible."

SVP and Founder, Qurate Digital Ventures

Keurig Dr Pepper Inc.

Consulting for Keurig Dr Pepper on LIMITLESS and other innovation as part of exiting LIMITLESS in January 2020.

Consulting Entrepreneur

LIMITLESS® (acquired by Keurig Dr Pepper)

I started LIMITLESS® in March 2016 and sold the business to Keurig Dr Pepper (NASDAQ: KDP) in January 2020. I work with KDP on a consultative basis on LIMITLESS and other innovation. 

The LIMITLESS signature product - Lightly Caffeinated Sparkling Water - is helping people all over the country to #ditchdietsoda once and for all. Each can has zero calories, zero sugar, zero artificial flavors and 35mg of clean caffeine.

Available nationwide at Walmart and other fine retailers.

Protein Bar and Kitchen (acquired by L Catterton)

Founder and Board Director of healthy-food quick serve chain. I sold the business to private equity firm L Catterton in winter 2013. Protein Bar & Kitchen® (PBK) focuses on helping people everywhere live the healthy lifestyle they want to live through a balanced menu of blended drinks, wholesome quinoa bowls, salads, raw juices, and our signature Protein Bar-ritos.

Founder & Board Director

Shopflix

I dreamt up Shopflix as a "modern day QVC." Ultimately 'aqui-hired' by QVC parent company, Qurate Retail Group.

Kraft Foods

Sr. Associate Brand Manager

L'Oreal USA

Marketing Intern

Founder with 3 exits in B2C now playing two hands in B2B (insurance and commercial janitorial). | I post daily lessons & learnings that are your shortcuts.

Founder with two 8-figure exits plus an ‘acqui-hire’. My lessons & learnings are your shortcut.

Currently building unsexy B2B businesses in commercial cleaning and insurance. 

My inspirations are Scott Galloway and Fareed Zakaria and The Economist. 

I’d aspire to be the “Rick Rubin for entrepreneurs.”

These opinions are purely my own and not of any of the companies I am affiliated with.

NCC is micro private equity providing capital and support to owner/operators in the commercial cleaning & janitorial industry.

Yesterday in therapy, I admitted something I’ve been hiding for 28 years.

In 1997, when I was a freshman at USC, I did what a lot of freshmen do: I pledged a fraternity.

Two months into the semester, I got “dinged” — kicked out before initiation.

For almost three decades, I’ve told a different story:

 “I left the fraternity to take an internship at a sports agency. Always kind of regretted leaving…”.

That wasn’t true.

I didn’t leave.
I was asked to leave.
I don’t think my mom even knows that.

On paper, it’s a small moment in a long life. 

But for an 18-year-old who had lost his dad at 11, who was craving belonging and male connection, it was a setback.

Worse, there was no explanation. No feedback. No “here’s why.”

Just a brief conversation on a beer-stained floor where an older brother (dude name Blair, from Solana Beach) told me I didn’t belong.

So I filled in the gaps myself:

Maybe I was too chubby
Not attractive enough
Bad at drinking
Too awkward

Whatever the reason, the conclusion I absorbed was:

“You don’t fit in. And that’s your fault.”

For 28 years, I’ve chased belonging in different forms — companies, groups, labels, titles, achievements. 

I’ve also found myself in places where, again, I just didn’t fit: big PE firms, large public media companies, YPO, certain rooms where I felt a little “off.”

Yesterday, finally saying this out loud, I arrived at a different conclusion:

It’s okay not to fit.

“Fit” is not a moral judgment. It doesn’t mean you’re broken. 

It just means that environment, that group, that culture wasn’t built for you — and maybe you weren’t built for it.

The strange irony is that, as an entrepreneur, I’ve had to make these same “fit” calls about employees, vendors, even customers (not to mention ex-girlfriends). 

I’ve told people, “This just isn’t the right fit” — without always appreciating how loaded that phrase can feel on the other side.

I’m 46 years old and just now using a LinkedIn post to say:

I got dinged.
I felt ashamed.
I lied about it for years.
And I’m finally okay with not fitting in.

If this resonates with you: you’re not alone, and you’re not broken.

Sometimes, it’s just the wrong room.

Oh - and in case you were wondering, my usual "Therapy Thursday" was yesterday because of the holiday lol 

📷 Me as a 19 or 20 year old with my closest buddies from USC. It wasn't part of a fraternity, but we def belonged in Vegas that weekend lol

Founder with 3 exits in B2C now actively buying SMBs | I post daily lessons & learnings that are your shortcuts.

One of the big myths American entrepreneurs love to repeat:

“Saudi Arabia (and the Gulf) are overflowing with capital just waiting to be invested in U.S. startups.”

Reality is almost the opposite.

The serious money in Saudi — whether it’s private investors or sovereign wealth vehicles like the PIF — is overwhelmingly focused on Saudi Arabia itself.

It’s not a giant ATM for the rest of the world. 
It’s fuel for a national transformation.

The mandate is clear:
- Build infrastructure.
- Create jobs.
- Support a young, fast-growing population.
- Enable a real middle class and family formation inside the Kingdom.

That means capital going into housing, logistics, tourism, entertainment, healthcare, education, advanced manufacturing — all the pipes and platforms a modern economy needs.

So if you’re an American founder dreaming of “Saudi money,” here’s the mindset shift:

Don’t think, “How do I get Saudi capital to fund my idea back home?”

Think, “How can my company bring capabilities into Saudi — technology, know-how, jobs, training — and help build what they’re trying to build?”

Saudi Arabia isn’t just a pool of capital. 

It’s a country in the middle of a massive buildout. When I was there it made me imagine what it was like in America in the early 1900s. 

If you stop treating it like a checkbook and start treating it like a partner, the conversation changes very quickly.

📷 My in Riyadh last year with the Saudi Ministry of Investment, which oversees the Saudi sovereign wealth fun (PIF)

#entrepreneurship #SaudiArabia #emergingmarkets #startups #mbs #vision2030

taplio

The Battle

Sean Kelly

Matt Matros

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreSean Kelly's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreMatt Matros's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Sean Kelly

Matt Matros

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Sean Kelly's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreMatt Matros's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreSean Kelly's LinkedIn Performance